Modern flight deck displays (or cockpit displays) for vehicles (such as aircraft or spacecraft) display a considerable amount of information, such as vehicle position, speed, altitude, attitude, navigation, target, and terrain information. In the case of an aircraft, most modern displays additionally display a flight plan from different views, either a lateral view, a vertical view, or a perspective view, which can be displayed individually or simultaneously on the same display.
The lateral view, generally known as a lateral map display, is basically a top-view of the flight plan, and may include, for example, a top-view aircraft symbol, waypoint symbols, line segments that interconnect the waypoint symbols, and range rings. The lateral map may also include various map features including, for example, weather information, terrain information, political boundaries, and navigation aids. The terrain information may include situational awareness (SA) terrain, as well as terrain cautions and warnings which, among other things, may indicate terrain that may obstruct the current flight path of the aircraft. The perspective view provides a three-dimensional view of the vehicle flight plan and may include one or more of the above-mentioned features that are displayed on the lateral map, including the terrain information. In this regard, some modern flight deck display systems incorporate a synthetic terrain display, which generally represents a virtual or computer simulated view of terrain rendered in a conformal manner. The primary perspective view used in existing synthetic vision systems emulates a forward-looking cockpit viewpoint. Such a view is intuitive and provides helpful visual information to the pilot and crew.
Often, such aircraft are utilized when performing search and rescue (SAR) operations in conjunction with a beacon-based SAR system. Most beacon-based SAR systems utilize a beacon (e.g., a distress radio beacon or locator beacon), which is a transmitter associated with a person, vehicle, or vessel. In an emergency situation, the beacon is activated, which causes the beacon to emit a beacon signal that is received by one or more satellites in a satellite system. The satellite system processes the beacon signal(s) and determines the approximate real-world location of the beacon (e.g., via triangulation, trilateration, global positioning system (GPS) techniques, and the like). The location of the beacon is provided to the aircraft, which then utilizes this location when attempting to locate the person, vehicle, or vessel.
In many situations, SAR operations are performed in inaccessible or remote locations, for example, in marine environments (e.g., over open ocean) or alpine environments (e.g., mountainous locations). In these various locations, a SAR aircraft might encounter rough weather conditions, such as, high winds, clouds, precipitation, and/or low visibility. This increases the difficulty on behalf of the pilot and/or crew to safely operate the aircraft while simultaneously attempting to locate the source of the beacon signal(s) (e.g., a person or vehicle). In addition, pilot and/or crew are often operating the aircraft at a reduced flight level during SAR operations, which further increases the demands on the pilot and/or crew. In these situations, the three-dimensional perspective view used in existing synthetic vision systems aids the pilot in safely navigating and operating the aircraft to avoid terrain and/or obstacles, however, the pilot and/or crew are still left with the task of manually navigating to the identified location and locating the source of the beacon signal(s).